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Communication

Description

Prediction markets are a type of futures market in which users trade shares that pay off if the event to which they are connected occurs. They are used to aggregate knowledge on a large scale, as the prices of the various contracts can be interpreted as probabilities of their events. Since 2006, our group has been using prediction markets and testing their utility in predicting the spread and impact of diseases, including seasonal influenza, syphilis, and others on a market called the Iowa Electronic Health Markets (IEhM), found at http://iehm.uiowa.edu. For example, in 2009, a series of markets were run on novel influenza A (H1N1), which showed success in predicting the extent and duration of the outbreak.1 We currently plan to move into a new phase of development that will allow the community of users to submit proposals for new prediction markets, which will then be approved by site editors and referees. We call the new system Samos.

Objective

This poster presents a software system to provide a community-driven, user-generated, low-overhead, web-based prediction market system called Samos.

Submitted by Magou on
Description

Little was known about the maternal and fetal/infant effects of Zika infection before the 2015 outbreak in the Americas, which made it challenging for public health practitioners and clinicians to care for pregnant women and infants exposed to Zika. In 2016, CDC implemented a rapid surveillance system, the US Zika Pregnancy and Infant Registry, to collect information about the impact of Zika infection during pregnancy and inform the CDC response and clinical guidance. In partnership with state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments, CDC disseminated information from this surveillance system, which served as the foundation for educational materials and clinical tools for healthcare providers.

Objective: To describe how Zika virus (Zika) surveillance data informs and improves testing guidance, clinical evaluation and management of pregnant women and infants with possible Zika infection

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The use of syndromic surveillance systems has evolved over the last decade, and increasingly includes both infectious and non- infectious topic areas. Public health agencies at the national, state, and local levels often need to rapidly develop new syndromic categories, or improve upon existing categories, to enhance their public health surveillance efforts. Documenting this development process can help support increased understanding and user acceptance of syndromic surveillance. This presentation will highlight the visualization process being used by CDC’s National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) program to develop and refine definitions for syndromes of interest to public health programs.

Objective: To describe the use of uni-grams, bi-grams, and tri-grams relationships in the development of syndromic categories.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

It can be difficult to distinguish between truth, half-truth, fiction, and misinformation as we watch the news, read headlines, and scroll through various social media feeds. Fortunately, epidemiologists have the tools needed to serve as a practical resource for colleagues, partners, and communities. The Scrutinizer Challenge is an opportunity for epidemiologists to tackle at least one news story or study a month that is relevant to public health. The goal is that we would do the research necessary to examine data sources and implications of news stories and studies. This process can help us deliver consistent and reliable messages to share with colleagues, partners, and communities. It also provides an opportunity for epidemiologists that practice in different settings to consolidate resources and develop working relationships that may be needed to more thoroughly examine issues.

Objective: Epidemiologists will be better prepared to serve as a practical resource within their communities and spheres of influence by taking the time to examine data sources behind and implications of news stories and studies that are being widely circulated.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

Tennessee has experienced an increase of fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses which has been almost entirely driven by the opioid epidemic. Increased awareness by medical professionals, new legislation surrounding prescribing practices, and mandatory use of the state's prescription drug monitoring program has resulted in a decrease of opioid prescriptions and dosages. Paradoxically, emergency department discharges and inpatient hospitalizations due to opioid overdoses have continued to increase. The Tennessee Department of Health, Office of Informatics and Analytics (TDH OIA) has developed visualizations and reports for opioid overdose surveillance data to enhance communication and timely response by health partners. Through opioid overdose surveillance reporting data briefs we aim to focus not on big data analytics, but rather meaningfully targeted data briefs that illustrate mindful data points and visualizations. These data briefs provide information that is actionable to support decision making across the spectrum of partners involved in responding to Tennessee's opioid epidemic.

Objective: Through opioid overdose surveillance data briefs, we aim to focus on creating meaningful targeted reports that incorporate mindful data points and visualizations for diverse audiences. Data briefs provide information that is actionable to support decision making across the spectrum of partners involved in responding to Tennessee's opioid epidemic. Additionally, visualizations and reporting of opioid overdose surveillance data create pathways and processes for sharing data and opportunities to collaborate with others expertise that enrich communication among multi agency collaborators and interdepartmental partners.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

Secure and confidential exchange of information is the cornerstone of public health practice. Often, this exchange has to occur between public health agencies across jurisdictions. Examples include notification of reportable diseases when the testing and residence of the patient are in different counties. The cross-jurisdictional issues become exaggerated in times of communicable disease outbreaks or events of interest that are not yet classified as outbreaks. Currently, such communication occurs between state and local agencies and between agencies and community clinicians on a personal level, with phone, fax and snail mail. There are a multitude of secured websites hosted by the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) that offer access to single applications requiring approved users to remember multiple sites and logins/passwords. The goal of this project was to develop a centralized, single sign-on secure web portal, from which users could access multiple applications and communicate securely with each other.

 

Objective

There is an urgent need for improved communication between stakeholders involved in outbreak investigations, public health reporting and events of interest occurring between different jurisdictions within the same state. Currently, state and local public health agency personnel rely on personal communications involving phone, fax and snail mail. UDOH sought to develop and encourage the use of a secured web portal that allows access to a variety of applications using a single sign-on. This was achieved by developing a secured communications framework called PHAccess that allows tools and applications to be implemented within a secure web environment, using open source software and Agile methodology techniques. The user-centric design currently hosts an electronic report-staging area, ELR/EMR reporting, webbased reporting, secure messaging between stakeholders and a state laboratory result look-up feature. Currently, there are over 700 registered users; 3693 secure messages that have been exchanged and the site has been accessed over 12,205 times since January 2009. Informal feedback from users has been encouraging and formal evaluation is planned, along with expansion and integration with state level health information exchange projects. 

Submitted by hparton on
Description

As part of the United States Department of Defense strategy to counter biological threats, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s biological threat reduction program is enhancing the capabilities of countries in the former Soviet Union (FSU) to detect, diagnose, and report endemic and epidemic, manmade or natural cases of especially dangerous pathogens. During these engagements, it is noted that Western-trained and Soviet-trained epidemiologists have difficulty, beyond that of simple translation, in exchanging ideas. 

Before 1991, infectious disease surveillance in the FSU was centrally planned in Moscow. The methodologies of infectious disease surveillance and data analysis have remained almost unaltered since this time in most nations of the FSU. Vlassov describes that FSU physicians and other specialists are not taught epidemiology as it is understood in the West. The Soviet public health system and the scientific discipline of epidemiology developed independently of that of other nations. Consequently, many fundamental Soviet terms and concepts lack simple correlates in English and other languages outside the Soviet sphere; the same is true when attempting to translate from English to Russian and other languages of the FSU. Systematic review of the differences in FSU and Western epidemiologic concepts and terminology is therefore needed for international public health efforts, such as disease surveillance, compliance with International Health Regulations 2005, pandemic preparedness, and response to biological terrorism. A multi-language reference in the form of a dictionary would greatly improve mutual comprehension among epidemiologists in the West and the FSU.

 

Objective

The objective of this study is to describe the development of a multilingual lexicon of epidemiology, which is needed for improved communication in public health surveillance internationally.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

The effectiveness of emergency preparedness and response systems depends, in part, on the effectiveness of communication between agencies and individuals involved in emergency response, including health care providers who play a significant role in planning, event detection, response and communication with the public. Although much attention has been paid to the importance of communicating clinical data from health care providers to public health agencies for purposes of early event detection and situational awareness (e.g., BioSense) and to the need for alerting health care providers of public health events (e.g., Health Alert Networks), no studies to date have systematically identified the most effective methods of communication between public health agencies and community health care providers for purposes of public health emergency preparedness and response. The REACH (Rapid Emergency Alert Communication in Health) study is a 4-year randomized controlled trial to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of mobile (SMS) and traditional (email, FAX) communication strategies for sending public health messages to health care providers—physicians, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants and veterinarians.

Objective:

To systematically compare mobile (SMS) and traditional (email, FAX) communication strategies to identify which modality is most effective for communication of health alerts and advisories between public health agencies and health care providers in order to improve emergency preparedness and response.

 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), like all public health agencies, is constantly challenged by new health threats and emerging diseases. A major responsibility of these agencies is the rapid and effective communication of information on emerging threats to members of the public who may be potentially exposed. This responsibility for effective risk communication is critical when the public perception of risk is high. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent anthrax mail attacks (Amerithrax) resulted in a new era of public risk perception and concern. Many new and advanced surveillance systems, developed in response to these events, have increased the need for effective risk communication. For example, the DPH developed its first syndromic surveillance system in September 2001 to monitor for possible bioterrorism events and emerging infections. This resulted in the implementation of a number of risk communication and response protocols. These and other protocols were tested in responding to the recent anthrax contamination of a drum maker’s residence and a multistate rash outbreak.

 

Objective

This paper describes various risk communications techniques used in Connecticut to provide health information to the public following surveillance signal alerts. The use of hotlines and contemporary social networking systems to quickly communicate with targeted populations are compared to the use of news releases and other traditional approaches.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The Public Health Information Network (PHIN) Messaging Service (PHINMS) is a PHIN-certified messaging system, initiated and supported by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. PHINMS is widely used by many hospitals in the state(s) to send their Electronic Lab Reports. The PHINMS architecture allows for multiple data streams and routing configurations. However, many states are still using the legacy File Transport Protocol for their syndromic data transfer. There are many benefits in utilizing PHINMS that will be outlined in this presentation. PHINMS contains two components: sender and receiver. A PHINMS entity (either a hospital or DOH) can act as both/either a sender and/or a receiver. This makes two-way communication possible via the same PHINMS connection.

 

OBJECTIVE

This presentation describes the secure and reliable data transfer methodology of syndromic data between hospitals and public health agencies using the PHINMS. Included is an overview of PHINMS and several programs South Carolina has developed including Auto Send, Data Extract, Email Notification, and Self-Issued Security Certificates. These programs are configurable for different hospitals and run automatically. The system can be easily adopted and customized by other states.

Submitted by elamb on